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Recap on Prospect Park Bike Lane

On Monday, I reported of another meeting of local residents angry with the newly completed Prospect Park West bike lane.

This lead to the creation of a facebook group against the bike lane which you can check out here. (Although you have to join it to find out what its all about, which means its made up of a lot of pro-bike lane people who want to be part of the debate-maybe a flaw with facebook)

Seems like this group wants to argue that the bike lane is bad because it has removed a lane of traffic and then when trucks double park, things like this happen…

That’s kind of like the woman trying to sue McDonald’s for burning her mouth because the coffee was too hot. Hmmmmm…Common Sense vs finding someone to blame?

Then there was an article in Streetsblog about the lane, by Ben Fried-

As PPW Intrigue Mounts, Brooklyn Paper Defends the Completed Street Before I get to the “intrigue” part of this post (it’s juicy), first let me say that if you haven’t checked out the Prospect Park West re-design yet, you owe it to yourself to head on over and take a look. Last time I checked, some of the finishing touches have yet to appear, but it’s already one of the most effective street transformations the city has undertaken.

With two lanes of traffic instead of three, PPW feels like it’s been reclaimed for the neighborhood. I haven’t biked the new two-way path since it opened, but I’ve walked on each side of the new PPW, and it’s a pleasure. The highway speeds and zooming traffic noise are gone, and the calming effect seems to rub off on everybody.
Read more here.

Ben pointed out last weeks op-ed in the Park Slope Courier against the new lane… Here.

and then the Brooklyn Paper’s response in defense of the new lane… here.

This group has some valuable information such as if you’d like to write the people who support the new lane and helped put it in place you can email them:

Community Board 6: Info@brooklyncb6.org
Council Member Steve Levin: slevin@council.nyc.gov
Council Member Brad Lander: http://bradlander.org/contact

Results of my impromptu poll shows: 143 people voted, 11 said have the lane removed at once, 3 wondered why it couldn’t be a regular bike lane, 5 said they were ok with the lane but cyclist need to be more careful and 124 people loved the lane.

i hate the PPW bike lane and i refuse to use it – and i can’t imagine many of the cycling regulars i ride with will, either. this curb/bike-lane/street parking set-up might be meant to be bike-friendly, but really, it’s a mess. and an accident waiting to happen.